Ghost Tale
by ishratc55
Summary: Before the war, there was peace. Even after death, she knows this. She just needs to remember. If she can remember, then she can help them. Only when she helps them, will she be able to move on. Or maybe she'll stay anyway. Who knows? Trouble can't be stopped by death and she's made some new friends.
1. Prologue

Uh, hi. Before this story starts, I just wanna say a few things. This is an Undertale AU. It starts before the actual game, and humans knew magic. I don't wanna spoil too many things cuz I still want you to read it, so I'll leave it at that. Enjoy!

Prologue

She lay awake in bed that night, staring at the ceiling. So many thoughts were running through her head. She knew she needed to sleep, after all, she had a big day tomorrow, but she just couldn't. She _always _had trouble sleeping. She still tried, sometimes. Sleep is still something the human body needs.

"Screw this," she said aloud, getting up out of bed. "I give up." She changed into her favourite jeans and a gray T-shirt and made her way out of her bedroom. Maybe she would find it easier to sleep after a nice walk in the cold air. She opened the closet to grab her leather jacket and went to the door.

"Where are you going?" a voice behind her said. She turned to face her brother.

"Just on a walk," she replied coolly, as she slipped her jacket on.

"Just a walk, huh?" he said. She could tell he didn't believe her, not that she cared. "If you're going on a walk, why are you wearing your gang's jacket?"

The jacket was black, which was hard to see in the middle of the night, obviously. On the back, was her gang's symbol, a silver trillium that looked as though the petals were made of knives. It was made when she and one of her friends couldn't decide what to do before finally deciding to mush their ideas together. They called their gang _The Thorns_.

"It's the only jacket I have." This wasn't a lie, either.

"Right..." He still didn't believe that she wasn't up to something. "Whatever it is you're doing, you better not get hurt. You have a big day tomorrow."

"I know," she said. "Don't worry."

"Of course I'm worried," he said. "You're my baby sister!" He ruffled her hair, which felt weird as her hair went down to her waist.

"First of all, I'm only two years younger than you," she began. "Secondly, I've got a gang consisting of six people, including me. Third, no one's gonna hurt me, knowing I'm your sister." He smiled.

"Alright, alright," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I got it, you'll be careful."

"See you," she said as she opened the door.

"See you," he replied. She smiled at him before walking out the door and closing it behind her.

She stepped out onto the pavement, breathing in the cold air. She loved this time of year. It was the middle of autumn, and the skies were clear so she could see the full moon. It was exciting, yet somehow at the same time, it was soothing.

Her friends thought this was kind of weird. They didn't get how someone could be excited but calm at the same time. She didn't get it either, to be honest. It wasn't like _pretending_ to be calm, and she wasn't pretending to be excited either. She just felt both at the same time. It was sort of like how someone could be happy and sad at the same time. She'd told them this, but they still didn't get it. Sometimes, she was pretty sure they were stupid.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Insomnia," a voice behind her said, breaking her thoughts. "Up in the dead of night again?"

"They don't call me Insomnia for no reason, you know," she said, turning around. She came face-to-face with her gang's worst enemies. They had a gang name, but she kept forgetting it. Not that she cared, she just thought of insults that were usually about how forgettable they were. It didn't matter, they hated monsters. Stupid. Humans and monsters are supposed to work together, but these jerks went out of their way to harass any monsters they came across. Not just that, but they ridiculed humans who hung out with monsters. Her gang consisted of three humans and three monsters, so they liked to harass them. Normally, she just ignored them and walked on, and they would leave her alone. But right now, it was different. It was the middle of the night. If they wanted to do anything to her, no one would know until the next morning.

"So, Insomnia," their leader, Calim, said. "Are you ready for a pummeling?"

"I think I should be the one asking you that," she replied, cocking her head to the side and raising her fists. She told her brother that if she got in a fight, she'd have her gang to back her up. She only said that so he wouldn't worry. Her gang members would be asleep right now. That didn't mean she'd be scared, she just didn't want to fight. But not fighting didn't work with this gang, so she readied herself.

"How about we make this fair?" the right-hand man, Trevor, said. She raised an eyebrow. Playing fair? That didn't sound like something they'd do. Even their leader was surprised. "Your soul trait is kindness, isn't it?"

"What are you on about?" she asked harshly, hiding how worried she was.

"You're a girl," he said. She grit her teeth. She hated it when someone assumed she was weak just because she was a girl. "And your soul trait keeps you from fighting as much as your friends. It would be fairer if we took you on one at a time."

"Whatever," she said. Just because her soul trait was kindness didn't mean she was weak.

"Alright then," Trevor said. "I'll go first." He raised his fists. "I promise not to mess you up too much for your big day tomorrow." Insomnia simply nodded.

**The fight begins. **

Trevor aimed a punch for the face, but Insomnia simply ducked under it. He aimed another, but suddenly switched to his left hand. She dodged again.

"Aren't you gonna fight back?" Trevor taunted. "You can't dodge forever. I'm not even using magic!" At that, Insomnia leapt up and kicked Trevor square in the face. He flew back and hit a ground, hard.

**The fight ends.**

The other gang members ran over to the boy, then looked up in shock at the girl. Insomnia had knocked Trevor out with one hit, and she was half his size.

"See you," she said, waving at them as she walked away.

"Now wait a minute," David said. "You still need to fight the rest of our members!" She turned around, and just for a second, David saw her eyes flash green. It was too quick, so he assumed that he'd imagined it. He was being ridiculous, her eyes were brown, not green and they certainly did not flash green.

"Nah, I'm in a good mood right now," she said, simply. "I get it though, you want justice for your friend, right?" David glared at her. "Justice is your soul trait, right? Well, how about we continue another day?"

"You bet we will!" he snapped. Insomnia simply smiled.

_How annoying. When will she ever learn?_

Insomnia walked down the street.

"Hey, Karma!" she turned around to see a kid who was about five years old.

"Heyo Chara!"

"How come those guys called you Insomnia?" the boy asked.

"Remember how I told you that I go by many names?" the older girl said, leaning against a nearby wall.

"Yeah?"

"I meant that literally," she started. "Some people call me Insomnia, some call me Karma, others call me Mikitara. I think the old lady in that apartment called me Monika; the only normal name I have besides my real name." The kid snorted.

"Are you excited about tomorrow?" Chara asked the older girl.

"Nope."

"Why not?" the boy asked.

"I have to wear a _freaking _dress!" she replied. "You know how I feel about dresses! Not only that, but I have to do a speech! I hardly ever talk to anyone, unless I have to, but now I have to do _a speech!_"

"I guess that makes sense..." the kid said. Even if he didn't know, he still would have been able to tell how much it bothered her. She was practically shouting. Whatever you called her, she was the same person and that person had a reputation for being quiet. He knew he had to say something to make her feel better.

"Don't worry!" he said. "I know you'll do great! You can do anything if you put your mind to it! You just need _DETERMINATION_!" She laughed lightly. Of course, the boy thought that. He had a determination soul. He literally could do anything he wants to with his determination.

"Thanks, Chara," she said, smiling at him. She hadn't taken his words to heart, but she was grateful that the kid was trying. She'd give him that at least. The boy smiled back and she ruffled his hair. "I'm glad to have a friend like you, but seriously, why are you up at this time of night? You are literally five years old, Chara!" His smile faded.

"I... I..." he was struggling to figure out how to tell her. She crouched down so that her face was level with his and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Hey, you can tell me anything, you know that right?" she said. He nodded, but then looked away. "I won't force you to tell me something you don't want to."

"No! I want to tell you!" the boy shouted. "I just don't know if you'd like it..." She pulled her hands off his shoulders and sat cross-legged on the ground.

"If you really want to tell me, then I'll wait," she said. She went silent and the boy realized she was going to wait here the whole night if she had to. She wasn't stubborn, not when it came to forcing someone to talk, but she would wait because she was really kind and he told her that he wanted to talk, and now he had to figure out how to tell her or they would sit there the whole night.

"Okay..." he started slowly. "Here's what it is." He paused. She simply looked at him with a neutral face. He knew she'd listen to him if he'd let her, but he didn't know how she'd take this. Karma cared about Chara like he was her own brother.

"Would you like to tell me?" she deadpanned when he didn't continue. He took a deep breath. He cared about her too and she _needed_ to know. But then she wouldn't want to celebrate her big day. She wouldn't want her happiness. She might deny it, but Chara knew that she wanted to do this if it meant a chance of happiness. But if she didn't know... All of her determination would be crushed when it happened. She would give up on everything if he didn't warn her. Even if she wasn't going to be happy, she would be worse if she didn't know. This was about her friends after all.

"The humans are gonna declare war on the monsters," he said, finally. She blinked.

"Say that again, will you?" she said. "I'm worried I heard you wrong."

Chara repeated himself. She sighed.

"How do you even know this?" she asked.

"I overheard my dad in his meeting room," Chara replied.

"I guess... I guess that means we're gonna have to pick a side," she said.

"Pick? But we're humans, we are on the human's side, aren't we?" the boy asked.

"Huh, just me then," she said, ignoring Chara's question. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." She began walking away.

"O-okay," he replied. "Bye Karma!" She waved without turning to face him.

He was worried. She hadn't reacted like he thought she would. She didn't show _any_ emotions. The boy knew that Karma didn't like showing her sadness to others - she didn't like it when people worried - but this was something important. Half of her friends were monsters, and she was human. It was then Chara realized, _what did she mean by pick a side?_ They would be forced to defend their own kind, wouldn't they? Why was Karma the only one who could choose?

Then it hit him. People called her Karma for a reason, didn't they? He started calling her that after hearing a middle-aged lady call her that. Chara knew there had to be a reason that she had so many nicknames. He was just scared to find out what they were.

Hi. It's me again. I hope you liked it. I'm sorry it's kinda crap. I thought I'd change it up a bit... and by a bit, I mean **a lot**! Either way, this was fun to write and it took a lot less time to write than I thought it'd take (this took me a couple hours, I thought it'd take a week at least) so it might be bad. I know I did this one pretty fast, but eventually, I'm gonna start procrastinating and now I'm rambling so I'm gonna stop. Again, I hope you liked it. Bye. 


	2. New Friends and New Foes

Hey, a quick note. Text _like this_ indicates thoughts in first-person. Italicized text in quotation marks, _"like so," _indicates that the character is speaking in Wingdings (you know, the font you probably discovered on Windows when you were, like 7). This might be a bit confusing, so I may change it later, but for now, I'm going with this. Also, underlined text such as here indicates stressed words.

Asgore rang the doorbell and waited. It was late at night, and he knew he'd definitely have to wait a while before someone came to the door. _Someone like her would be asleep right now._ But it was very cold here in Snowdin, so he hoped he didn't have to wait for too long. He looked to the two skeletons near him. They were talking amongst themselves, but Asgore couldn't understand them. That was one reason he'd come all the way here. He'd read that skeletons had their own separate language and he only knew of one other skeleton to have survived the Great War.

He'd been waiting for 20 minutes now, so he rung the doorbell several more times successively. He was cold and impatient and his young companions were tired as well. He heard footsteps walking to the door.

_Honestly, couldn't you walk a bit faster?_

Finally, the door opened. A skeleton in a red T-shirt and pants to match was standing there. They seemed to be only a few years older than the two other skeletons. They also seemed really tired and annoyed, understandably.

"Caroline, at last," Asgore said. "May we come in? It's cold out here."

"Sure," the older skeleton responded. "Who are your friends?"

"That's what I'd like to ask you about," he said.

"Oh?" she was confused but didn't press it. "Do you want anything?"

"Oh yes," Asgore replied. "Hot chocolate please."

"K," Caroline replied, walking into the kitchen.

_"Why do you think he brought us here?"_ one of the skeletons said.

_"I don't know, but they both seem nice,"_ the other replied.

_"You think __everyone__ is nice!"_

"Here you go!" Caroline said, suddenly appearing next to the three of them and handing a cup from the tray she was holding to Asgore. The two skeletons jumped, they hadn't noticed her walking back into the room. Then she offered a cup to each of the younger skeletons. They looked at each other before one of them quickly grabbed a cup and began drinking.

_"Slowly! You'll burn yourself!"_ Caroline exclaimed. He coughed a bit, not expecting the drink to be so hot. But thanks to her warning, he didn't sip as much as he would have if she didn't.

_"Are you okay?"_ she asked. The skeleton nodded.

The final skeleton took the remaining cup hesitantly and took a sip. It was hot, but bearable if he didn't drink too much in one go.

"So you can understand them," Asgore said.

"Yes?" she replied. "Your point is?"

"This could work..." he said quietly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll be back in the morning, see you, Caroline," Asgore said quickly, running out the door.

"Don't you want to stay the night?" The door shut in response.

_"Ah well..."_ she said, slowly. _"That just happened."_

_"So... what are we going to do now?" _the taller skeleton asked.

_"I guess you'll have to stay the night," _she said. _"I've got two spare bedrooms." _She showed them the two rooms and then walked to her own room.

_"Uh, hey," _the shorter skeleton said before she was inside.

_"Need anything?"_

_"What do we call you?"_

_"Oh, I'm Caroline! Nice to meet you!" _she said. _"What's your name?"_

_"My name is Papyrus, and this is my brother, Sans," _the taller skeleton said.

_"Nice you meet you, now go to bed," _she said. It wasn't a mean tone, just an exhausted I-don't-want-to-talk-right-now one.

She then disappeared into her room and closed the door. Sans stood in the hallway for a couple of seconds before walking into one of the rooms. Papyrus walked into the other.

There was silence for about half an hour in the house before Caroline opened her door again. She was now wearing jeans and a green drawstring hoodie, her favourite outfit. She pulled the hood over her face and made her way downstairs. She pulled her cozy boots on. They were good for any sort of weather, and that was why she liked them so much. After she was ready, she waited a couple of minutes, listening for little noises and hoping that the boys hadn't woken up. No doors opening, no one mumbling in their sleep, not even a ghost strolling through the house. It was really quiet, as though the house was abandoned.

_I wonder... Nah, I won't take my chances. _

She quietly opened the door and then tried to shut it quickly to prevent the cold from getting in without slamming the door loudly. She walked to a nearby shop and bought clothes for Sans and Papyrus. She walked back into the house, took her boots off and left them still covered in snow by the door.

_Trekking through the snow took longer than I thought it would have._

Caroline dropped the bags of clothes she'd just bought into the living room. Then she began brushing any snow on her that hadn't melted yet and shivered.

_I really need to fix the heating._

She left again and bought two plastic chairs and put them by the table. She also bought several other things since _knowing Asgore, he's going to leave the brothers in my care permanently_. Not that she minded. _It'd be nice to finally have some company after so long._

She repeated this process several times until she had enough of everything needed for three people. She even went grocery shopping this late at night.

Sans had actually heard her leave her room and went to check. He'd gotten curious when he saw her leave the house from the top of the stairs and thought he'd wait to see when she came back and ask her why she left in the first place. But seeing her come back with bags of stuff... stuff for them, made him realize how nice she was. Although Papyrus only ever saw the good in people, it goes to show that he's not always wrong and that there really are some nice people in this world.

He made his way back to his room and silently closed the door. He listened as Caroline made her way up the stairs. He could tell she was trying to be as quiet as possible, but Sans could still hear her. He listened as her door closed with a small click. With a sigh of relief, he lay down in his bed and fell asleep instantly.

_Nice try, Sans. _

Caroline had not actually walked into her room. She simply stood outside of it and closed the door. She smirked. She'd known that someone had stayed up. Though, to be honest, it was thanks to Sans that she'd actually decided to stop procrastinating and finally do her errands.

Knowing that she had to be careful this time, she teleported herself back downstairs and pulled her boots back on. Then she teleported herself to Waterfall.

"C-Caroline!" said a voice. "Wh-where have you been?"

"Sorry guys," she replied, slipping her right hand into the pocket at the front out of habit. "I had a surprise visit from the king and he left some houseguests."

"It's okay, Alphys and I haven't been waiting that long," her other friend replied. There were several painful seconds of awkward silence.

"Caroline."

"Yes, Undyne?"

"D-did you say t-the king came over your h-house?" Alphys asked.

"And he left guests?" Undyne added.

"Yeah, he left two skeletons," she said. "They look like they're a couple of years younger than me."

"Why would he-" Undyne said.

"I don't know," she said. "But I wasn't exactly in a position to argue. I had a feeling one of them was still awake so I went and did some errands and came back. He went to bed after he thought I entered my room again."

"Well, it's a good thing you thought of that," Undyne said, placing an arm around Caroline's neck. "Wouldn't want our little Carol to get caught on her way to our secret hideout."

"Undyne! I'm not little! I'm older than you!" she exclaimed. "And our hideout isn't that secret!" The other two laughed.

_"You guys!" _They started laughing harder. Caroline couldn't help herself and started smiling too. Then she started laughing with them and facepalmed with her left hand.

She'd gotten a little too worked up and had switched into Wingdings. They had an inside joke that always made them laugh whenever Caroline subconsciously started speaking in Wingdings. Although it was hilarious, they knew they had to stop thinking about it or someone would hear them.

"D-deep b-breaths, guys. Deep breaths," Alphys said, trying to keep a straight face. Undyne started breathing really loudly, which only made them laugh harder.

"What were we talking about before... this?" Caroline asked after they finally stopped laughing.

"No idea," Undyne said.

"I d-don't think we were talking about anything," Alphys replied.

"Oh. Well then..." Caroline started.

The three of them spent the next two hours talking about what the surface was like before the monsters were sealed in the Underground and how they thought it had changed.

Caroline was, in fact, the oldest of the three and was born in the middle of the Great War, but she looked like she was only 16. Alphys was 18, while Undyne was 19. They called her little because Undyne had mistaken her for a kid when they'd first met and it annoyed Carol.

"We should get going," Alphys said.

"You're right," Carol added. "Wouldn't want my houseguests to think I left them out of something fun."

"Which is exactly what you did," Undyne said.

The three of them said their goodbyes and planned to meet again the next week. Caroline teleported back into her house and slipped her boots off and put them exactly the way they were after she left the stuff by the dinner. _Just in case. _She teleported into her room and changed into her red PJs. Then she covered herself in the blankets and closed her eyes.

_I really hope they were __both__ asleep._ That was the last thing she thought of before she fell asleep herself.

Caroline woke up again a few hours later and got out of bed. She'd always been a bad sleeper - a side effect of being born during the Great War. She slipped on her green hoodie and jeans back on. She slipped her right hand into the pocket and opened the door to Papyrus. He had his hand in a fist as though he'd been about to knock.

_"O-oh," _he said. _"I didn't think you'd be awake."_

_"I normally wouldn't,"_ she lied. _"But no one can come over to my room with the intention to knock without waking me up." _That wasn't a lie. It was the kind of skill one develops over time. Whenever someone came to her door she'd wake up a few minutes before, giving her enough time to defend herself. If they were a friend, she'd go on with her day as usual. If it was a foe, well... their death would be swift. They would have no chance to attack. She didn't like hurting people, but she'd always been ready to defend herself. Even now that she was safe in the Underground, she never let her guard down.

_"Oh," _Papyrus said, in response to her explanation.

_"Do you want something?" _she said slowly.

_"Breakfast?"_

_"Oh yeah, of course!" _she said quickly.

The two of them went downstairs to find Sans already sitting at the table on one of the plastic chairs. He looked over her slightly damp boots with a strange expression on his face. The same expression Alphys made when she suspected that Undyne or Caroline had used something of her's without permission and was making sure nothing was out of place. _I knew it was a good idea to put them back exactly!_ Alphys had a specific place for everything of hers's and Caroline had a photographic memory. When Undyne and Carol teamed up to mess with Alphys's stuff, Caroline was the one who put them back.

_"What do you two want for breakfast?" _she asked once Papyrus had taken a seat. The two looked at each other and didn't say a word. Then they looked back at her.

_"Surprise us,"_ Sans said. _Well, that was unexpected._

_"Uh, sure?"_ She got to work making breakfast for the three of them.

Sans noticed pretty quickly that not once had she slipped her right hand out of her pocket and preferred to use blue magic instead. She knocked something over on her right once and instead of using her right hand to catch it - and she had plenty of time to do so - she used her magic.

_Wierd, but who am I to judge? _

_"I'm done!" _she said. She handed them their plates, which now had pancakes on them, and poured maple syrup onto them.

_"Thank you!" _Papyrus exclaimed.

_"Thanks," _Sans said.

Caroline took a seat at the table and began eating as well. After they were done, she took their plates and began washing them. Again, with mostly blue magic.

_"Caroline?" _Papyrus said.

_"Sup?"_

_"Are you going to be our mom now?"_

_"M-mom?" _she blushed bright purple. _"I-I'm not that old! More like a sister..."_

_"A sister?" _Sans said.

_"Yeah, why not?" _

_"Can we call you sister?" _Papyrus asked, hesitantly.

_"If you want to, yeah," _she said with a shrug, as she continued to do the dishes.

_"Sister?" _Papyrus said, testing the word out. She hadn't actually expected him to go along and blushed lightly again.

_"Yes, little brother?"_ she replied with a smile. She was curious to see how he'd react. Papyrus laughed. Then she remembered what she'd bought last night.

_"I bought you two new clothes," _she told them. _"They're in the living room. I'll come over when I'm done with these." _She gestured to the dishes.

_"REALLY! THANKS!" _Papyrus exclaimed before running off.

Caroline continued washing the dishes in silence, slightly frustrated. _How long does it take for one to wash the __freaking__ dishes? _

_"Hey, uh, sis?" _Sans said. She looked over at him as she used her blue magic to put them away.

_"Yeah?" _she said.

_"Thanks for cheering Papyrus up," _he said. _"He's been pretty gloomy since... since..." _

_"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," _she replied. _"But if you do, I'll listen." _He stayed silent.

_"Maybe some other time, then," _she said. _"Let's go meet up with your brother. I think he'll still waiting in the living room for us." _Sans nodded.

Caroline watched from the couch as the two picked out clothes from the bags. She wasn't sure about their size or what their style was, so she'd bought a little bit of everything that looked like it might fit either one of them. Papyrus picked clothes that either fit him or were _"really cool"_. Sans didn't seem to care about what clothes he got, but rather that Papyrus was happy with his. _Cute. _

After all the clothes were sorted, she helped them put them into the closets in their rooms.

Still, Sans noticed, she didn't slip her right hand out of her pocket and used blue magic. He remembered last night that she'd been wearing her pyjamas when she answered the door and had her right hand free and he couldn't figure out why she was hiding it now. He supposed he could ask when they were done with this.

They had just started with Sans's clothes when the doorbell rang.

_"I'll go get it. You guys can wait here," _Caroline said. She had a feeling it was Asgore. She was right.

"Good morning, Caroline," he said.

"Morning," she replied. "Would you like to come in?"

She stepped aside to let him in then shut the door. Asgore walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Caroline noticed he had a sack full of different items, though she couldn't tell exactly what was in it. He dropped his head into his hands and was silent for a few minutes. She knew what was on his mind, but didn't know how to comfort him so she just waited patiently.

"Caroline," he said finally.

"Yes?"

"I've been thinking about this, and I think it'd be best if you were the one who raised the skeletons," he said.

"Oh?" she said, pretending to be surprised.

"I just believe it would be easier for you to teach them how to communicate with us since you speak both languages," he added.

"That makes sense," she commented.

"And being a skeleton yourself, they would be most comfortable around you."

"I suppose."

"I honestly think you should have become a teacher rather than a sentry," he said.

_Not this again._

"Your majesty, we've talked about this," she said.

"Yes, I know. But you just have this... this aura around you."

"Aura?"

"Yes," he replied. "Whenever I'm around you, I just feel so much calmer. You don't even have to do anything, just standing next to you is enough." She was quiet for a moment.

"I'm not sure if that logic makes sense, but thanks," she said.

"I brought these for them," he declared, holding up the sack. "Books, toys and such."

"Thank you!" she said. "You didn't have to!"

"I know, but I wanted to." They stared at each other before Asgore grabbed her hand and gave the bag to her. It was heavy and she quickly let go and started using blue magic instead.

"Thank you," she repeated.

"Well, I should get going now," he said, getting up. "And before you ask, yes, I had breakfast. Goodbye Caroline."

"See you," she said as she opened the door for him. He didn't say anything as he walked away. She frowned as she closed the door.

_"Sister, who was that?" _Papyrus said suddenly. She flinched. _"Did I scare you?"_

_"No, I just didn't hear you come down," _Caroline replied. _"That was the king. His name is Asgore."_

_"Oh," _Papyrus said simply. They were silent for a few seconds.

_"Did we finish with Sans's clothes?" _she asked.

_"No."_

_"Let's continue with that," _she answered. They went back into Sans's room and put away the rest of the clothes.

_"Thanks," _Sans said once they were done.

_"No problem," _she said before glancing at the clock. _"Look at the time! I'm late for work!" _

_"Does that mean you're leaving," _Papyrus asked.

_"Yeah, but I'll be back! Don't worry!" _

_"Be careful!"_ Papyrus yelled.

_"Don't worry, I will!"_ With that, she bolted downstairs, pulled her boots on and ran out the door. There was silence in the house for a few seconds.

_"So... I guess we just wait, huh," _Sans said.

_"Yeah..." _his brother responded.

Caroline pulled her hood over her face and took a few steps into Snowdin Forest before teleporting the rest of the way to her station to find Undyne waiting for her.

"Sorry I'm late, Undyne," Caroline said.

"No need," Undyne replied. "I heard that the king came over to your house this morning."

"Oh," she said. "Does everyone know?"

"Yeah, kinda." There was silence between the two of them.

"Was there a reason you came here?" Caroline asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh yeah!" Undyne said. "Happy birthday, you punk!" She reached into her inventory and handed Caroline a box covered in wrapping paper.

"Thanks, you didn't have to," Caroline responded. She took the box anyway.

"I'm gonna head to my station now," Undyne said. "It's freezing here!"

"Okay, see ya later, Undyne!"

"See ya!" her friend yelled before running off to find someplace warmer.

Caroline took a seat at her station and looked at the box. She opened it to find a note and a cell phone. She took out the note first and read it. Some parts were written by Undyne and some by Alphys.

Hey, Carol. Happy Birthday!

Alphys made this just for you. It hasn't even been released to the public yet!

We know you won't care what we give you; after all, you're always saying it's the thought that counts.

But we thought that since it's your birthday we had to give you something.

And before you ask, yes Carol, it's waterproof and it'll last at least a century in Undyne's opinion.

Don't even think about trying to return this, punk!

Undyne noticed that you didn't have a cell phone yet, so I thought I'd make your first special.

Don't worry about asking us for our numbers. I already added them for you!

Your besties, Undyne and Alphys ❤️️

Caroline couldn't help herself. She was overwhelmed by how much they cared. Silent purple tears slide down her face. How long had Alphys stayed up working on this? When had Undyne even noticed that? When the two of them were together, it was always for work or when they were hanging out with Alphys. They never spoke about what they had now or what they didn't have. It was always about their childhood or what their future could be. This gift meant a lot to Caroline.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and continued the rest of the day went as usual, but Caroline returned home to a hug-tackle from Papyrus as well.

A few months passed since then. In that short amount of time, Caroline had managed to teach Sans and Papyrus the language of the other monsters in her spare time. They were quick to pick up on it, and in just a few weeks, both were very fluent and could read it as well. She, Undyne and Alphys also had their 'secret' meetings once a week and Caroline realized that Alphys had a crush on Undyne. She knew that Alphys would eventually come to her for advice and decided to wait instead of bringing it up herself. Asgore didn't visit the skeletons again, but he did send letters. Most of them were for Caroline, but the brothers didn't mind. Over the first few weeks, they'd really grown to adore Caroline and she adored them. They knew that they could rely on her for anything!

That morning, Caroline was sitting at her station thinking about how her life had changed for the better since her brothers had arrived when her thoughts were interrupted by a phone call.

"Sup Alphys," she said, cheerfully.

"H-hey Carol," her friend replied. "H-how's your day g-going?"

"Pretty good!"

"Th-that's great! But that n-not why I c-called you."

"I figured as much," Carol commented.

"Th-there's a human h-heading toward your station," Alphys said, anxiously. "Th-they're moving r-really fast."

"Okay, I'm on it," Caroline said, ending the call and getting up. She slipped the cell phone into the pocket of her jeans and took a couple of steps onto the path. Although, to be honest, the path was practically non-existent as it was covered in snow.

Caroline took a few more steps forward before she heard a gunshot. She slipped her right hand out of her pocket and caught the bullet before it caused any damage and looked to the direction the sound came from. The human stopped in his tracks and stared. _Judging by the size of the human, he must be a child._ The kid wore a cowboy hat and a kind of vest. He held the gun in his right hand. He raised it and shot again. Caroline caught the bullet a second time with the same hand, before turning to face the human.

"Hey there, kiddo," she said. "Don't you know it's rude to attack someone who hasn't done anything to you?" She raised her arm so it was parallel to the ground and opened her fist. The bullets fell to the ground, sizzling.

"Don't play dumb with me," he said. "Ah know what you were goin' to do." He was nervous, but he tried to hide it. Her speed was terrifying.

"Do you?" she said, smugly. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, Toriel told me how y'all are like," he snapped.

"I see." She smiled. The human growled. He really wanted to wipe that grin off her face. He raised the gun again.

"You're not gonna shoot that again, are you?" she asked. "I can catch them easily. You're just wasting bullets."

The child flinched. She was right. In fact, he was being downright stupid. He needed to use them wisely. But her speed made this monster a deadly opponent. Not to mention he didn't like the aura around her. Her hood covered the top half of her face and he couldn't see it, her smile suggested she was cocky, but she seemed to know what she was doing. She already cost him two bullets. If all the monsters were like her, he wasn't going to last very long.

"Are you helpin' me?" the child asked.

"I don't know," she said. "Am I? You tell me." His yellow justice soul appeared over his chest.

"Enough with your mind games!" he screamed. He lunged at her swinging the gun like it was a bat and she dodged. He continued this several more times, and she just dodged. _This isn't workin'._

_If Ah'm goin' down, it won't be without teachin' y'all monsters a lesson first! _

He began firing bullets, again and again, each time the monster either dodged or caught them. _What am Ah even doin'? Wait for an openin' and then shoot. _

The monster began attacking him. She summoned bones out of the ground and he ran to avoid them. What looked like to be dragon faces, but just their bones, appeared and began firing beams of purple energy. He barely managed to dodge the last one, singeing his vest. He could feel the raw power in the shot. If that blow had actually hit him, it would have killed him instantly!

"You're pretty good!" she commented. "I guess I'll have to use more than an eighth of my power." _That was just an eighth?! No, she's got to be tryin' to scare me!_

"Carol!" a voice called. The boy glanced at the direction of the voice. It came from a blue monster who looked like a hybrid of a fish and a human. They were wearing heavy armour, but their face was exposed.

"Not now, I'm kinda busy!" the boy's opponent called. She jumped to avoid another attack.

He saw a chance. He didn't know if it would work, but he knew he had to take the chance. He raised the gun again, but instead of firing at his initial foe, he fired at the fish.

"Undyne! Move!" the greed hooded monster yelled. Being up in the air, like she was, there was no way she could get there in time. The bullet hit the fish monster's left eye. Her friend landed and ran over to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked frantically. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, I'm fine," she said, standing up and pressing a hand over her eye. "We just have to deal with this punk first!"

"Not we," Caroline said, furiously, as she threw a first aid kit at Undyne's feet. "I have to!"

"What!" Green barriers surrounding Undyne.

"Carol! No!" she banged a fist against the barrier, but nothing happened.

"I'm not letting you get hurt again," she gritted her teeth.

There was complete silence in Snowdin Forest for a few minutes. Even though he couldn't see her face clearly, he could see that a purple glow began to form under her hood and the smile that spread across her face read pure insanity.

It was at that moment when the boy realized he had messed up. _She's goin' to use her full power on me! _

The boy turned around and ran, losing his hat in the process, but Caroline suddenly appeared in front of him, summoning her blasters as she did. _How is she so fast? _He ran to his right, but he wasn't quite fast enough and the blast burnt his arm, depleting some of his HP and he cried out in pain. He looked down at his soul and noticed that it had changed colour. _Purple? Wha-_

It was then he noticed three horizontal lines in front of him. He tried to take a step back but he couldn't move.

"Nice try," his opponent said. "You're purple now! Your only paths are the three lines in front of you! You can jump over to another line, but you'll have to be fast. I'm going to send some traps your way!"

"Why are you telling me this?" the boy asked.

"I thought it'd only be fair if I explained what's going on to give you a fighting chance," she stated. "Otherwise it'd be too easy for me." That crazed look was still there.

_She's still playing with me? _He was worried.

Caroline summoned bones around her and fired some parallel to the line in front of him and he quickly jumped to the left. However, more bones flew towards him on that line. He waited for the bones from the previous line to fly past him then quickly jumped back. A blaster appeared in front of him so he jumped to the right-most line. He wasn't quite fast enough and more of his HP was drained. _If this keeps up she goin' to kill me! But what else can I do? I'll have to attack her when she's distracted._

He dodged as best as he could, but she managed to hit him again with a blaster, causing him to drop his gun.

"Shi-"

"Hey, don't swear!" Caroline cut him off. "We're family-friendly down here!"

"You're family-friendly, but you're tryin' to kill me," he stated, raising an eyebrow.

"Have you already forgotten what you did to my friend?" she asked. "You're a hazard. Letting you live would be putting others in danger. We can't have that!" She laughed, sending a chill down the boy's spine. _Ah lost my chance to attack! Even if Ah don't have a weapon, Ah could've at least run at her!_

His opponent stopped attacking and his soul returned to its original colour.

"What are you waitin' for?" he asked.

"It's your turn~" she sang. _My turn? _

"Does that mean you'll let me attack you?"

"Mmmhm! Of course, I'll try to dodge them!"

He ran to where he'd dropped his gun and picked it up. He leapt toward his opponent and swung it repeatedly, the monster simply dodged it like she'd been doing this entire time.Whatever game she was playing, he figured his turn would end when he stopped attacking. Then it would be her turn. _Ah just gotta tire her out!_

He wished he'd paid more attention when his brother had been talking about monsters. All he remembered was that monsters got tired from overusing their magic. This monster had been using a lot of magic in their fight. In fact, she was still using magic. Her friend was still trapped inside that green box she'd created.

Having nothing else to do, Undyne was using the first aid kit to treat her eye. She was just covering it up in bandages, to be honest. _I'll just have to find a healer to fix this properly after Carol lets me out again._

She was worried. Carol was a really good fighter and could power through any injury, but when her rage got the best of her like now, she'd temporarily forget who and where she was. That wasn't the only problem with her current state.

Undyne had once been told by the king that she had used this power during the Great War as a child. They would have won, had it not been for the fact that this power quickly depleted her energy. Asgore said that she was sick for several weeks after that.

Undyne had asked Carol about this power, near when they'd first met.

"Don't be silly," Carol had replied. "I promised the king I'd only use this power when absolutely necessary."

"What if you get mad and lose control?" Undyne had asked.

"Well, in that case, it would be absolutely necessary," she had announced with a strange smile.

Undyne had wondered what she meant by that for a while, but as she got to know Carol more and more, she realized that Carol was not the type to get mad easily. In fact, out of the three of them (Undyne, Alphys and Carol), she was the most level-headed. The calmest. The most optimistic. Undyne knew that if she was to get angry, it would mean that she'd get very, very angry.

Undyne sighed, as she snapped back to reality. _I trust you. But you're my friend and I'm allowed to be worried about you. I know you're worried about me too._

She finished bandaging herself as best as she could and had no choice but to watch. _At least it's warm in this stupid box._

The human was still swinging his gun madly. Although he was no longer focusing on hitting his opponent, he still couldn't afford to end his turn yet. So far, the monster had successfully dodged every single swing, which was exactly what he was going for. Although he'd be more than glad if he could actually land a hit.

_This... actually might be working!_ Caroline seemed to be getting tired pretty quickly, but the boy was losing energy fast too! If he were to end his turn now, he definitely wouldn't be able to dodge her attacks. Not that it mattered. By now he had figured out that his opponent was just toying with him, and assumed that she planned to give him a very slow and painful death although he wasn't sure how exactly she was going to do this. _She has definitely lost her mind. _

Undyne watched from her 'safe house.' She was more than capable to help take out the human, but Caroline wouldn't let her and she knew nothing she said would change that. She could be stubborn when she wanted to be, even more stubborn than a human sometimes. Caroline was normally calm and collected, but take one jab at her friends, and you're screwed!

She watched as her friend easily dodged every one of the human's swings, but Undyne could see that her powers were starting to take their toll on her. She was slowing down and the barriers surrounding Undyne were steadily starting to fade. That meant that Undyne would soon be free, but it also meant Carol was probably about to pass out. Undyne would have to act quickly if she wanted to prevent her friend from getting hurt.

At this point, the barrier was weak enough that Undyne might be able to break through it. She hit it with her fist once. Caroline gave her an intense stare from under her hood but didn't make an attempt to come over. Undyne hit the barriers again and again. She was about to hit it one last time, but the barriers suddenly just disappeared entirely and she fell forward onto the snow. _Did Carol pass out or did that punk hit her?_

"It's my turn now~" Carol sang. "Get ready for my special attack!" _Oh, that's why the barriers disappeared. _Undyne was a little relieved, but now she knew that Carol would definitely pass out after this. Even if she wasn't using this power, she would be unable to move, but in this form... Either way, that human would be dead after this. Caroline was about to combine all of her remaining magic into one.

Undyne covered her eyes in preparation for this attack. She heard the blast and felt snow fly towards her. When she opened her eyes all she saw were the ashes that were the remainings of the human and Caroline held his yellow soul in her left hand. She turned around and faced Undyne with a smile, before falling back onto the snow. Undyne ran forward and began checking over her friend. She was barely conscious, which was more than Undyne had expected, but she didn't have any physical injuries.

"Please don't do that again," Undyne said.

Caroline smiled reassuringly. Undyne sighed.

"Let's get you home, punk," she said. "And don't worry, I'll tell the king how you beat that human."

"Thanks," Caroline replied, faintly. "And I'm... sorry for... for scaring you." The words were barely out of her mouth before she lost consciousness completely. Undyne sighed. _At least I know she's not dead._


	3. Magic and Like 5 Seconds about Resets

Hi! Sorry for the holdup for this chapter. I had to re-write it 3 times because the doc kept deleting everything I wrote! Once, because the internet crashed, forcing the page to reload, the second time being I changed my password and my laptop forced me to sign out, as for the third time, I don't even know why it refreshed again. I guess Error really doesn't want this AU to exist. But I suppose, thanks to this problem, I've been able to improve this chapter a bit. Anyway, for any chapters in the future, **bold text** is for when a character is speaking in a demonic voice, and highlighted text is for when I'm speaking... like right now. Here's the next chapter, and thanks for waiting.

Papyrus sat on the edge of the stairs. According to the clock hanging on the wall, it was 3 o'clock. Sans had fallen asleep on the couch several hours ago, and Papyrus had carried him to bed. Sans had been really exhausted lately; he'd been practicing magic non-stop ever since Undyne had brought Caroline home, unconscious. Undyne had shown up and had carried Caroline up to her room. When she came back downstairs, she introduced herself and Papyrus ran upstairs to check on Caroline. He sat on the edge of her bed and held her hand. He had linked souls with her almost as soon as he had heard about it, and he was glad he did. He could tell that she was going to be okay.

Papyrus could hear Sans yelling at Undyne from downstairs. He kept asking her what had happened to Caroline, but Papyrus couldn't hear her response. He decided to just wait and ask Sans later.

Undyne stayed for a few minutes, but after she left, Sans came upstairs and took a seat next to Papyrus on the bed.

"How is she?" Sans asked.

"Her SOUL doesn't have any cracks," he replied. "It is pretty weak for some reason, but she's going to be okay," Papyrus said. He looked over at Sans. "What did Undyne tell you?" Sans was quiet, his eyesockets dark.

"Was it that bad?"

"No, not really," his brother replied. "It's just she used a lot of magic and passed out."

"Wow, I did not think that was possible for her to do that," Papyrus said. "She's so good at using coloured magic and she does everything with it. I sort of assumed she had an infinite amount of Soul Energy."

"Yeah..." Sans said. He sounded uncertain. _Are you hiding something else?_ Papyrus knew Sans would never lie to him, but he did tend to hide small details. Small details he thought might upset his brother, which of course, worried Papyrus. Normally he would push Sans to tell him, but right now, that wasn't important.

Caroline was really skilled in all forms of magic, but especially coloured magic. It kind of reminded Papyrus of someone, but he couldn't quite remember who. Caroline was the one who taught them both how to use magic. Most monsters took years to learn magic even with someone teaching them, but their sister had managed to teach them in just a few weeks.

They had gone to a school to learn, and since it was their first day, their sister was allowed to hang around and watch them for the day. The king was teaching today as a special guest and asked them how much prior experience they had in using magic. Papyrus told him they didn't have any.

Sans didn't care, but when the king told them that they couldn't use magic, Papyrus was devastated. Seeing how sad he was, Sans tried to comfort him. The king had gone through this process several times before and knew it was best to just let them get their emotions out. That was when Caroline stepped in.

"If the king won't teach you, then I will!" she said, putting a hand on Papyrus's shoulder. "So what if he thinks you can't learn magic? I believe in you. I believe in you both!" She looked over at Sans and smiled.

"So much for doing as least as possible," Sans muttered under his breath and sighed.

"Are you sure about this Caroline?" King Asgore asked. "They have no prior experience and are at that age where it is pointless. It's best to not even try."

"I love a little challenge!" she said. She spoke in a happy and excited tone, but Papyrus noticed that her eyes started glowing a menacing purple. "Besides, we can overcome anything as long as we persevere!" The king sighed.

"Normally, I would not allow this, but I know that even if I say no, you'll figure out a way to do it anyway. I'll give you the back room." Papyrus's eyes lit up with joy and he hugged her and Caroline laughed. Sans couldn't help but smile. He could tell that this was going to be really hard and he knew that Caroline was stubborn and wouldn't let Sans back out of this one. But he didn't care as long as Papyrus was happy.

Caroline would explain each form of magic and then demonstrate it. She wasn't showing off, but that didn't mean it wasn't impressive. Then she would give them a few days to try and start showing signs of being able to use it. By doing this, she could figure out what they were capable of and how much they would have to work on it.

Hi! I'm back! Welcome to my excuse to explain how magic works in my AU. I kept most of it the same as the game, but I added a few things. Remember when I said that this chapter got deleted several times before? Well before this, I wrote walls and walls of text. But now, I have put some dialogue as well as a few extra bits of info to make it... less boring. I hope you enjoy and that what I write makes sense!

"Every living being has a Soul. That's where a monster's magic comes from. When you become friends with someone, you can link souls with them. The stronger your friendship gets, the stronger your soul gets... That kinda sounds like a 'my friends are my power cliche' but it's true! Most of the time, the first person you link souls with are your parents. Linking souls can also allow you to sense your friends' emotions and their well being, mentally or physically. I'm telling you this because the stronger your soul is, the longer you can use magic without getting tired. Some forms of magic use more Soul Energy than others - coloured magic requires the most and linking souls requires the least."

Caroline told them to link souls with each other, rather than demonstrating.

"Each time you link souls with someone is unique. It feels different from the last because no two souls are exactly the same," she said. "So I think it'd be better if you try linking with each other first. To get the feel of it." She sat between them. They sat in silence awkwardly for several painful seconds. They knew Caroline really wanted them to be able to do this, but they weren't quite sure what to do. Thankfully, Caroline was gently guiding them through the process.

They did as she said, bringing their souls out into view. It took a few seconds as they figured out how to do it. Then they reached out to hold hands and closed their eyes. After that, the eldest skeleton stopped talking. She didn't need to. Their souls would know what to do. Even humans, who couldn't use as much magic as monsters, could link souls and they did it without even thinking about it. She knew these two could do it.

A soft aura began to form around them. The aura around Sans being blue, and the aura around Papyrus being orange, the same as their souls. Then the colours switched places. Sans glowed orange and Papyrus glowed blue. Now it was easy to notice that their souls had been glowing too. The glow suddenly subsided and the two brothers opened their eyes again, their souls disappearing from view again.

"So... how did it feel?" she asked, with a smile.

"IT FELT GREAT!" Papyrus exclaimed.

"It felt like... like a sunny day," Sans said, as he tried to put it in words.

"Can I try linking souls with you now?" Papyrus asked. For some reason, she looked surprised.

"You want to link souls with me?" she asked.

"Yeah! You're our sister now! Of course I want to!" She blushed and buried her face in her hands. Sans couldn't help but laugh at her reaction.

"I thought we already had this figured out," Sans said.

"W-we did! I just... I just didn't think you were serious," her voice muffled.

"Caroline, look at me," Papyrus said. "Do I look serious?" Papyrus looked at her and crossed his arms. Sans started laughing. Papyrus glared at him and he stopped laughing, but he didn't stop grinning. He looked back at his sister and repeated his question.

"Oh yes, you look very serious," she said, playfully. He broke into a smile.

"See? So can we link souls now?" She nodded and Papyrus came closer.

She reached up and placed a hand on her chest and cupped her hands around her purple soul as it appeared. Papyrus recalled that it took him longer to make his soul appear again, longer than it had when he was trying to link with Sans. It made him nervous because he was worried that he wouldn't be able to do it again. His sister explained that he was able to do it easily before because he and his brother had known each other for a long time, so their souls had been in contact for a long time. Papyrus really wanted to link souls with Caroline, so when it finally appeared he was really excited.

They reached out and held hands as the brothers had before. They started glowing the colour of their respective souls and then switched just like last time, but it felt entirely different just like Caroline said it would. When Papyrus had linked souls with his brother, it felt nice and warm - or as Sans had described it - like a sunny day. But when he linked souls with Caroline, it felt bright and lively. Papyrus wasn't sure how to describe it to Sans, but the closest Caroline got was a forest.

"Sans, do you want to link souls with Caroline too?" Papyrus asked. He shrugged but moved closer.

Hi. I didn't know what else to put here, so just assume they repeated the process one last time and then they practiced summoning bones for attacks for a few days or something... I'm kinda lazy after having my work deleted several times already... Or you could just say a time skip happened. That works too.

"I'm going to tell you about coloured magic," Caroline said. "Each form of coloured magic is associated with a certain soul type. For example, as a PERSEVERANCE soul, I was born with the ability to use purple magic. As you know, each soul type also has a Soul Ability. I guess I'll tell you about each one in the order it comes in the rainbow." She shrugged.

"Red magic is naturally given to those with a DETERMINATION soul. Red magic can create objects out of thin air, from cups to cutlery, but most people use it to create weaponry on short notice. The thing with red magic is that it can't be passed on to another person." She looked over at her brothers. The look on their faces was pure confusion. Well, Sans seemed to be trying to figure it out, but Papyrus was completely lost. She sighed.

"Here, I'll show you." Caroline created a small sphere out of red magic. "Sans, catch!" She threw it, but the moment it touched Sans's fingertips, it disappeared.

"If I make something out of red magic, only I can use it. If I wanted to hit someone with red magic, I would literally have to keep holding on to it, whether that's literally or by focusing Soul Energy on it," Caroline explained.

"What's the DETERMINATION Soul Ability?" Sans asked.

"The DETERMINATION soul ability is called 'Second Chance' and basically, if a DETERMINATION soul is attacked and, um... killed, then they will be able to resurrect themselves. They can do this as many times as they need to, but there is one drawback. There is a 10-second window after they're resurrected. If they are killed again in this 10-second window, it will be permanent. That doesn't mean that DETERMINATION souls can't die naturally too. If they live a normal and peaceful life with a happy and healthy family, then they will pass away naturally from age."

Caroline told them they should at least attempt to use red magic first. If they were capable of using it, then they would start showing small signs within the first couple of hours. 'Sparks,' she called them. If they showed sparks, then she said that they would practice it. Unfortunately, neither of them showed any sparks. Eventually, Caroline told them to grab their things.

"I mean, school is gonna be over in a few minutes, so we might as well get ready to go home," she reasoned.

Some of the kids gave the skeletons smug looks. Papyrus heard them whisper to each other about how Caroline was just refusing to accept that members of her species were forgetting how to use magic. It made Papyrus feel a little sad, and Sans was getting mad. They laughed cruelly. Caroline went over to one group and gave them a hard stare. There was no doubt, she was enraged. But she spoke calmly as she explained that it was rude to talk about someone who could hear them. Even if it couldn't hear, it was still rude. She asked them if this was what their parents taught them, and when they said no, she asked if they thought that their parents would be proud of them for talking about someone like this. Caroline kept asking them questions, and with each one, the kids would realize what they were doing wrong and that they needed to stop.

"We promise never to do anything like this again," one of them said.

"Really?" Caroline asked.

"Yes, it isn't right and we shouldn't have done it in the first place!" another said.

"We're sorry!" The rest of them chimed in.

"Why didn't you yell at them? You were mad," Sans said when his sister walked over to them.

"If I yelled, that would have only encouraged their behaviour, but this time they'd say it was revenge," she said. "By speaking calmly, I helped them understand that what they were doing was wrong and why it was wrong."

"Do you think that what they said was true?" Papyrus asked.

"I don't care about what they think, what matters is what I think," she said. "And I think you can do this!"

As they walked home, Papyrus couldn't help but feel excited for tomorrow. Now that he knew that Caroline wouldn't give up on them no matter how long it took, he couldn't wait to learn even more magic!

The next day, Caroline decided to teach them about the next form of coloured magic.

"BRAVERY souls, like you, Papyrus, are born with orange magic. Orange magic is normally referred to as 'Orange Attacks.' Orange magic can also be infused with bullet patterns," she said, as she demonstrated by summoning a tiny bone that fit into the palm of her hand.

"If I were to throw this at someone, it wouldn't do anything to them as long as they keep moving," she explained, as she made the bone disappear. "Orange magic can also manipulate souls. If someone turns your soul orange, you have to keep moving or you could get hurt. Of course, this won't work on you, Papyrus, since your soul is already orange."

"WHAT'S MY SOUL ABILITY?" Papyrus exclaimed. Caroline flinched, and he quickly apologized. Their sister didn't like loud noises. She had never told them this herself; she hadn't even confirmed it when they asked. But Sans had figured it out quickly, and it explained some of her behaviours. Papyrus tried his best not to get too loud, but sometimes he couldn't help it.

"It's okay, you're excited," she said, with a nervous laugh. "The BRAVERY soul ability is called 'Nerves of Steel,' and basically the more danger you are in, the stronger your attack and defence get. Your soul energy also increases and you can use more magic."

Papyrus struggled to activate the magic, but after a few minutes, he finally made one of the bones he had summoned turn orange. It quickly disappeared but seeing it work made him more motivated. Before long, he could use orange magic like second nature. One of the kids who had been making fun of them yesterday walked in, and this time it was Sans's turn to look smug.

"I knew you could do it!" Caroline said, hugging Papyrus. He beamed. It felt nice to be treated like this.

"It's your turn to try, Sans!" Papyrus exclaimed, before adding, "Sorry." He'd gotten too loud again. His sister waved it off, and they continued with their day.

Sans didn't get any sparks for orange magic, then again, he wasn't trying very hard either. Eventually, class ended and they had to go home.

The next day, they were learning about yellow magic.

"Yellow magic comes naturally to JUSTICE souls. Yellow magic can fire bullets, or force bullets to home in on a soul. If your soul is yellow, you gain the ability to shoot bullets from your fingers as well. It sounds pretty simple, but yellow magic is finicky and really hard to control."

"What's the JUSTICE soul ability?" Papyrus asked.

"The JUSTICE soul ability is called 'Judgement's Calling,' and basically, each time the JUSTICE soul - or someone they really care about - takes damage from someone else's attacks, the person who attacked them also takes damage," she explained.

Neither of the two skeletons had any sparks and decided to spend the rest of the day practicing the magic they could already use. Caroline watched from a short distance. She smiled. When they asked, she would tell them what they were doing great, and what they needed to improve on.

When the day ended, Papyrus practically ran out the door, catching Sans off guard.

"He's going to make me run after him, isn't he?" Sans muttered under his breath.

"I bet we can beat him to the house," Caroline said, as she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I know a... a shortcut."

"Okay, where is it?" Sans asked. Papyrus wasn't sure what happened after that, he'd gotten too far away to hear them. But when he got home, Sans and Caroline were already there.

"How did you beat me here?" he asked.

"It's a secret," Caroline said, winking playfully at Sans.

"Oh, come on! Tell me! Please!" Papyrus begged. Caroline laughed. "Sans, please!"

"Sorry, bro. Secrets are best-kept secret," his brother replied. "Unless Care wants to tell you herself."

"Wh-what... did you... call me?" Caroline asked.

"Care..." Sans replied, nervously. "Do you not like it or -"

"No, I like it! I'm sorry, it just caught me off guard!" she replied. She spoke so quickly that all of her words combined into one, so it sounded more like, "NoIlikeitI'msorryitjustcaughtmeoffguard!"

"Okay..." Papyrus said.

"Anyway, we should go inside," their sister said, opening the door and walking inside.

Dinner that night was... awkward. Usually, they would talk about what they learned that day and how they could improve. Tonight, however, Caroline seemed lost in thought. When they called her name, she would look up, answer whatever questions they had so vaguely, that Papyrus didn't even think it was possible to be this vague.

When they went to bed that night, Papyrus couldn't sleep. Caroline's soul was restless and it was keeping him up. This wasn't a normal thing for Soul Links, but if the emotion was powerful enough, it could be felt by everyone who had linked souls with the person in question. Caroline was trying to be quiet, and she was doing well. If not for their Soul Link, Papyrus wouldn't have known she was awake. To be honest, it was kind of scary how quiet she was, despite her soul being so distressed. Sans was up too. He wasn't as restless as their sister. He was probably up for the same reason as Papyrus.

Papyrus was pretty tired the next day. He hadn't gotten any sleep, but he knew that Caroline would get worried if she found out. She was already stressed as is. When he walked into the kitchen, he was met with the smell of waffles. Breakfast was already on the table, and Caroline was leaning against a counter drinking a cup of coffee.

"Hey, little brother," she said. "Can you go wake Sans up for me?" Her tone was cheerful, but her soul said otherwise.

"Of course!" he replied.

When they arrived at school that day, Caroline started teaching them about green magic.

"You probably already know about this one. Green magic is associated with KINDNESS souls and is also called 'Healing magic,' for obvious reasons. But green magic can also create barriers," she demonstrated by creating one between herself and the brothers. "Depending on your skill and Soul Energy, you won't have to focus as hard to keep these barriers up. The KINDNESS soul ability is 'Last Resort,' and it activates when their HP is low enough. It allows the KINDNESS soul to heal anyone in a 15-metre radius, regardless of who's side they're on."

I'm getting kinda tired of writing that they didn't learn the type of magic that Caroline's talking about. But I need an excuse to explain how magic works in this AU. So from now on, just assume the skeleton brothers didn't learn the form of magic unless I say that they do... It might be a bit late to say this, but still. Also, here's another time skip.

"Some call it cyan, some say light blue, I'm gonna go with teal. Teal magic is associated with PATIENCE souls, like you, Sans. Teal magic can also be fused with our bullets. They're called 'blue attacks,' which I think is kinda confusing since there is also blue magic - but more on that later! To avoid a blue attack, you have to stay still and let it pass through you."

"What's the PATIENCE soul ability?" Papyrus asked, knowing that Sans probably wouldn't ask.

"It's called 'Stopwatch.' Sans, your Soul Ability allows you to manipulate time. You can slow down time, speed it up, or stop it completely."

"Sweet," Sans said.

Sans practiced using magic and activating his Soul Ability all day. He was doing pretty well. He was a natural. Actually, Sans was normally really lazy, but this time, he seemed to be trying harder than Papyrus had ever seen him try. He was trying so hard, in fact, that he actually passed out. Caroline was worried at first, but Papyrus assured her this was normal. She gave him a weird expression but didn't press the subject and instead told Papyrus to go collect their things.

"I'll explain this to your teacher," she said, lifting Sans up into her arms. She spoke calmly, but Papyrus could sense her stress and fear. _Please don't hide your emotions the way Sans does. I can't handle two people like that!_

When Papyrus was done packing their things, he walked out to see Caroline waiting for him near the door. Her eyes were glowing and she was staring in the direction of their teacher. _She seems mad now. Did they get into an argument?_

"Ready to go?" Caroline asked when he got close.

"Yeah, let's go!"

When they got home, the first thing Caroline did was drop Sans off in bed. When she came back down, she asked Papyrus if he wanted anything. The two of them ate dinner together in silence. After dinner, Papyrus went upstairs and immediately fell asleep the moment he laid his head on his pillow.

"So the next form of magic is linked with the INTEGRITY soul. Remember how yesterday I said blue attacks are kinda confusing when they're compared to this form of magic?" Her brothers nodded. "It's because this form of magic is also blue. This form of magic gives you the ability to lift objects without actually touching them."

"Oh, so this is the form of magic you use to make breakfast!" Papyrus exclaimed. He had managed to stop himself from getting too loud, but it was still pretty loud. "Sorry."

"It's fine, and you're right, I do use this magic to make us breakfast," she said. "You can also use blue magic on people."

The two brothers spent the day practicing, but it was Sans who had mastered it.

"Sans, you're a natural at this," Caroline said.

"He could be a natural at all forms of magic if he tried harder," Papyrus replied. "You're such a lazybones, Sans."

"Say what you want, I got thick skin," his brother replied. Papyrus groaned, but Caroline started laughing.

"Sans no!"

"Sans yes!"

"You two dorks, stop fighting and start practicing before I die of laughter," she said. Unfortunately, she was still laughing so it was hard to take her seriously.

Papyrus felt really good that day after school. Whatever was bothering Caroline yesterday seemed to be over. She was no longer stressed. She couldn't be if she was laughing as much as she did this morning.

"So the next form of coloured magic is purple magic which is tied with PERSEVERANCE souls, like me," the eldest skeleton said. "Purple magic can create traps of any kind. You think of it, I could probably make it. I say probably because_ I don't know if the teacher over there will let me._" She switched languages mid-sentence. It was obvious that they really did not get along often.

"What's your Soul Ability?" Sans asked.

"My Soul Ability is called 'All or Nothing,' basically if I feel that I am in a certain amount of inescapable death-" Papyrus flinched. He didn't like where this was going. "- I can separate my soul from my body and hide it. That would make me pretty much immortal with unlimited powers unless the enemy can land a direct hit on my soul. If they do, it could kill me instantly."

"Y-you're not really going to ever use it, are you?" Papyrus asked in a small voice.

"Of course not," his sister replied. "I just thought you should at least know what our Soul Abilities are capable of."

"P-promise me!" Papyrus said, practically in tears.

"Papyrus-"

"Promise me you won't ever do that, Caroline!"

"I promise, okay, just stop crying," she said, wrapping him in a hug. "It's alright." She looked over at Sans. He looked away and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

After they went home that day, Papyrus would not let his sister leave his sight for more than three seconds. Sans said he was being slightly clingy, but Caroline didn't really mind. Sure, she was obviously uncomfortable with this much attention, but she said that Papyrus could stick as close to her as he wanted.

"Alright, this is the last form of coloured magic you should learn about. _Unfortunately, your teacher said you're not allowed to practice it, _so I'll just tell you about it. Pink magic is connected to the FEAR soul. Pink magic can create illusions, but when it's used on someone's soul, it forces them to live through their worst fears."

"So basically, if pink magic is used on your soul, you're screwed," Sans asked, although it sounded more like a statement rather than a question.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," she replied. "The FEAR Soul Ability is 'Necromancy,' which means they can raise the dead. It can recreate monsters from their dust too, but the FEAR soul can control the people they bring back to life."

Hey, I'm back. The idea of the FEAR soul isn't originally mine. It was first thought of by Camila Cueva on YouTube for her series 'Glitchtale.' I just thought it was a cool idea and added it to my story. Now that I have that out of the way, you may continue reading the story.

"So... since we're not allowed to practice this form of magic, what do we do now?" Papyrus asked.

"Well, technically you now know about all forms of coloured magic, so I guess just practice what you already know?" she said with a shrug.

They spent that day practicing, but somehow in the middle of it, Sans had some sparks for pink magic. Although sparks were an understatement, it was more like a storm. The classroom teacher was freaking out, which only made the other students freak out. Caroline walked over to Sans calmly, who had curled into a ball to keep himself from hurting someone by mistake.

"Hey, Sans, can you hear me?" Her brother nodded. "Listen to what I'm going to tell you, it'll help you control the magic." Papyrus couldn't hear what she was saying after that, but he could see she was demonstrating what to do. Sans copied her, and the storm died down.

"Are you feeling alright?" she asked. Sans nodded. "I think we should head home for the night."

The rest of the day went normally.

While Papyrus was lost in his thoughts, he hadn't realized that Sans had been awake this entire time. He was trying to sleep, but he couldn't. He'd woken up shortly after Papyrus had carried him to bed. He had moved into Caroline's room and sat on the edge of her bed. He knew it wasn't his fault, but he still felt guilty. He remembered the resets and had lived through this at least 10 times. He knew what was going to happen each time, but he still couldn't stop it. Sure, learning how to use magic all over again was a pain, but it was nothing compared to watching his sister suffer. At least this time, he'd learned a new form of magic. His sister was still hurt, and no illusions were going to fix that.

He just couldn't forget what he'd heard that day after school.

He remembered that he had passed out in the middle of class and had woken up at home in bed. He knew from linking souls that Papyrus had already fallen asleep, but Caroline was awake. She was nervous and he could hear her pacing around her room like she was about to do something that could get her into trouble. He knew that if he walked out, she wouldn't tell him what was wrong, so Sans decided to wait for a few minutes in bed.

Then he heard Caroline's bedroom door open. He teleported himself out of his room and followed. He wasn't sure if Care knew, but ever since she showed him that 'shortcut,' he had been practicing for himself.

As always, she was wearing her trademark hoodie and was currently pulling her boots on. Sans quickly grabbed his own jacket from off the floor of his room and rushed back out as quietly as he could. He slipped on some slippers and ran after her, hoping she hadn't just teleported herself to her destination. He was in luck.

"The powers of plot convenience are on my side," he muttered under his breath.

He followed her footsteps and would quickly teleport himself out of her sight whenever she looked back. Eventually, they neared a clearing in the forest.

"Azzy," Care whispered. "Where are you?"

"Howdy!" a voice answered back. It was what looked like a small flower. It had six red petals, surrounding a white centre, and a light green stem.

Yeah, the Flowey of my AU has red petals. You got a problem with that? No? Then I'll continue with the story.

"It's been a while since we've talked, Carol!" the flower monster said.

"Yes, yes it has, Azzy," she replied, darkly.

"Didn't I tell you not to call me that? It's Flowey. Flowey the flower!"

"Look, I just have a question for you."

"Ask away!"

"It's been bothering me for a while... What if I were to tell you things that have never happened before are happening?"

"What do you mean?"

"Papyrus asked to link souls with me when I was teaching them about magic," she said. "Normally, I ask him first, don't I?" Sans recalled the previous resets. It was true. Caroline had asked first.

"Huh," Flowey said. "That is weird."

"What did you do?"

"I swear I didn't do anything," he said, defensively. When she didn't respond he added, "I learned my lesson, I'd never lie to you!"

"Well, I didn't do anything, you didn't do anything, so what's going on?" Care asked.

"Look, I think it has to do with previous resets," the flower said.

"Explain."

"Remember about 10 resets ago, you died."

"It's not that easy to forget."

"Well, after you died, your dust landed on your... 'brothers.'"

"So?"

"You're aware of the resets, maybe when your dust landed on them, it gave them some of your powers." There were several moments of silence as Caroline took this information in.

"That's the most logical explanation you can come up with?"

"I mean, there's plenty, but this is the one that makes the most sense to me," Flowey said. "And don't you remember that you have no idea why you remember resets as well? I remember them because I control them-"

"Don't remind me. I might end up setting you on fire again."

"- But you have no reason to remember them; you shouldn't be remembering them," he continued. "And I know you won't kill me again. You're not stupid. You know I'd just come back from the dead like I always do."

After that, Sans couldn't bear to listen any longer and teleported himself back home. _Caroline knows about resets, too? If I had known this before, we could have worked things out together! _This would explain why she seemed distant sometimes. Maybe this was why she was so stressed the other day. It didn't explain why she was bothered by loud noises, but it was a start. Then he remembered the flower's words.

"I remember then because I control them."

_So you're the one in charge of the resets... I thought they just happened. But I need to make them stop, for me, and for Care. But how? Why do the resets even happen? _

Sans had never gotten around to asking Caroline about the resets, and now he would have to wait until she gained consciousness again, and that wouldn't be for a while.

So... that's the end of the chapter. I originally planned to bring in the part that made this 'Ghostale,' but then this chapter ended up being really long, so I guess you'll just have to wait for the next chapter. Hopefully, it will run much more smoothly. I hope you enjoyed it! See you next time!


	4. Update

Hey! So, remember when I said my work reloads randomly and deletes everything I write? That's still happening, and it's even worse now. I spend 5 seconds on a separate tab, boom! Everything's gone! I think I might have some sort of virus on my laptop, so I'm going to get it checked. So I won't be able to post another chapter for awhile. Sorry, I'll try to get this fixed as soon as possible. Thanks for being so patient!


	5. Update 2

Hey, so I'm not dead. My laptop is fine (I don't know what was wrong with it in the first place). I am working on the next chapter, I'm just busy and my parents have restricted the time I'm allowed to have on technology since we have no school. That's all. I hope all of you and your friends and family are doing well! Have a lovely day!


	6. Remember her?

Hey guys, it's me. So I remembered that the last time I wrote a chapter, it was explaining how magic worked and all that. Well, I forgot to add that Papyrus can use healing magic. He can't create barriers - he tried, but he couldn't - but he can heal.

Also, I realized that I didn't describe a lot of the characters very well, so sorry about that, and I'm gonna do that now. Most of them look the same as the originals, but younger, such as Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, Papyrus, and Sans. Of course, Papyrus doesn't have his "battle body" yet, but he does have his red scarf, and Sans's jacket is actually a light grey. Alphys isn't the royal scientist yet, but she is a scientist.

I described Caroline a bit, but I feel like I didn't describe her well enough. She's about 161cm or 5 feet, 3 inches. Her hands are kinda like Gaster's, with the hole in the middle of them. Her eyes have little lights in the middle as the equivalent to human pupils. They glow a really light purple. Not a creepy glow, a nice warm glow, although the... brightness...? The brightness of the glow changes depending on her emotions. Like when she's mad it gets brighter and when she's upset, they go out. I'm pretty sure I described her clothes pretty well, so I'll leave it at that. On with the story!

Oh, and also, prepare yourself for some good old wholesomeness. At least in my opinion. Everything always seems better in your own head... so... I don't know... Enjoy!

The next day when Sans woke up and realized that he had fallen asleep next to Caroline. He couldn't help but lay there for a little while longer. Sure, he always had a hard time getting out of bed, but this was different. After the number of resets Sans had experienced, Care felt like a real sister and he felt safe around her, even if he'd just found out that she knew about the resets. It didn't matter. Sans understood why he'd never said anything about it. It was the same reason he hadn't brought it up.

_Who would believe you? And even if they did, they'd just forget it the next reset._

But if she knew, why did she keep doing this to herself? According to the flower that Care was talking to earlier, there were way more resets than the 10 Sans had already experienced. So then did that mean if she didn't weaken her soul to the point of being in a freaking coma, that something worse would happen? Sans didn't really want to find out.

After lying there for several long minutes, he finally got up and dragged himself out of bed. He froze when he felt a hand brush against his fingers and wiped his head around.

"Caroline...?" He was greeted by a small laugh.

"Morning, bro," Caroline said, sitting up. "How long have I been out?"

She looked like she was still really tired and the light in her eyesockets was dull, but she was awake and she seemed happy. Now Sans was excited. _It normally took longer in the other resets, but at least she's okay._

"Two weeks," Sans replied. He saw her expression change for just a second, but she quickly realized it and picked a neutral face. _She is aware! She must be confused... I'll talk about it with her later._

"I'm gonna call Papyrus," he said to her.

Sans walked out of the room and called for Papyrus, who came running up. Papyrus was just as excited as Sans was his first run through, and he barely managed not to scream in joy. They both crawled into bed and hugged her.

The three of them lay there for a while before Sans announced that he would get Care something to eat. Whenever Carol was at work, Sans would make them lunch for the two brothers. It wasn't as good as anything Care made, but after several resets, he'd gotten the hang of it.

"What? No, you don't have to do that. I can do it myself," she said, getting out of bed and almost immediately falling over.

"Are you okay?" Papyrus asked, grabbing her arm to steady her.

"Yeah... I just stood up too fast," she replied. "Give me a minute." Her eyes were still dull, but she was able to stand up just fine this time.

"Come on, sister, you just woke up," Papyrus said. "You should rest for a little while longer."

"Paps, I've been resting this entire time, I think I'm good," Care responded. Papyrus opened his mouth to respond, but Sans interrupted him.

"Papyrus, we both know that Care isn't going to change her mind," he said.

"Your brother's right, I won't," she said, as she walked to the door then leaned on the doorframe, facing them. "Now are you coming, or not?"

They headed downstairs and had breakfast like normal. Well, almost normal. Care kept dropping things pretty often and her reaction time was a bit slower. Papyrus asked if he could help her out. His sister was going to say no, but just as she opened her mouth, she knocked over the milk jug, which Sans caught with his own blue magic before it spilled.

"Yeah, okay," Caroline said. "You can help."

The three of them worked together to make some pancakes, then enjoyed it like always.

After breakfast, Caroline called Undyne and Alphys to let them know how she was doing. Papyrus stood nearby watching her and if Sans had to guess, he was probably worried she was going to fall over again. As for himself, he was sitting on the couch in the living room not too far away from the two of them.

"Undyne said I can start going back to work starting Monday, so that leaves us with three whole days together!" she said to them when she was done. Papyrus smiled and leapt into her arms for a hug. He did that a lot, but Care never seemed to mind. This time, however, Papyrus ended up hug-tackling her to the ground instead.

"Sorry!" he exclaimed.

"It's okay," Caroline said, with a laugh, before Papyrus could apologize a second time. "While we're here, being affectionate and all, wanna come join us, Sans?" He slid off the couch and walked over to them where they were and wrapped them in a hug.

The rest of the day went smoothly. Not normally, but smoothly. Even after all of this time, Caroline was still not used to... to... this. All of this affection made her nervous and sometimes she was worried she would mess something up. She liked it, a lot. But it always felt new to her every time.

That night while she was laying in bed and staring at the ceiling, trying to sleep, she sensed Sans coming to the door and opened it before he got there.

"Sup? It's pretty late, don't you think?" she asked, leaning against the doorframe.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," he replied. "In private..." Care raised an imaginary eyebrow. _Yeah, that's definitely new..._

"Sure thing," she said, as calmly as possible. She let Sans enter, then closed the door behind him.

"Do you know about the resets?" he asked, as soon as he was seated on the bed. The light in her eyes went out for a minute as a look of shock covered her face. Then she closed her eyes and laughed bitterly for a few seconds.

"So that's what it was," she said, finally. "To answer your question, yes, I do... unfortunately."

"I do too..."

"How long have you been aware?" Care asked him, taking a seat next to him.

"You mean how many resets I've experienced? About 10 so far. You?" Caroline went silent for a few seconds, scratching her arms as she thought about it.

"I don't know, I lost count," she said. "I tried keeping track for a while, but then I kinda gave up since my progress kept getting wiped." Sans tilts his head and gives Carol a weird look that she doesn't notice.

_The look on her face says otherwise. She's hiding something. Maybe she is still keeping track but doesn't want me to know the exact number._

"So... I guess that means that there were a lot before I started remembering them."

"Yeah..."

"How did you start remembering them?" Sans asked. There was some more silence, and just as Care opened her mouth to explain, the two of them heard the sound of a snowball hitting the window. Care walked over and open it. She peeked out and looked around for a bit, before getting hit in the face with a second snowball.

"What the f***, Flowey!" she screamed, censoring her choice of words just in time as she recalled Sans was still in the room.

Yeah, Caroline can censor her swearing at will, but she can't do it to other people. Just herself, which is the reason she stopped Justice from saying what he was going to say. Like the other two skeletons, her font is different. Her font is called Delius. That's all, bye!

"I'm sorry! I kinda need you here!" he shouted back. Care grumbled.

"I'll be right back," she said, reaching for a hoodie, this one was purple, like her soul.

There are a lot of Author's Notes this chapter, but I just gotta say this. Basically, Care has multiple hoodies of the same design, but in different colours because... why not?

"Can I come?" Sans asked. His sister thought about it for a moment.

"But what about Papyrus?" Care asked, slipping her hoodie on. Sans was quiet.

"He'll be fine," Sans assured her. "Please. I just got you back, I don't wanna lose you again." He was honestly on the verge of tears.

"Alright, alright. You can come," she said, pulling him closer for a hug to comfort him. "Just stay behind me." Sans went to grab his jacket and found Care waiting for him next to the door, and like always when she left the house, her hood was already up and her right hand was in her pocket.

"Ready?" Care asked. Sans nodded. She opened the door, let Sans through, then closed it behind them.

"Took you long enough," the red flower said.

"Geez, I'm so sorry," Care said, not sounding sorry at all. Her eyes glowed menacingly. This was a side of her that neither of the skeleton brothers had ever seen before, and it kind of made Sans nervous.

"Why are you bringing your brother with us?"

"Because I can," she snapped. "Anyway, what did you need me for?"

"Well... it's better if I just show you," Flowey said. The flower reached up and Caroline sighed.

"This again?" she said.

"What does he want?" Sans whispered to her.

"It's easier to lead you two if she lets me grab on," the flower said, responding to Sans's question before Caroline could.

"The last time I let you do this, you-"

"The last time I did this, we didn't have our truce," Flowey exclaimed, cutting her off. "Now we do, so I won't do that again. I swear. You'd beat me up easily if I tried."

"What did he do?" Sans asked. Care sighed.

"Don't worry about it," she said, bending down so that the flower could reach her. "He's right. We made a truce and neither of us are going to break it anytime soon." The flower wrapped some vines around her outstretched arm and lifted himself out of the ground.

"Can you bend your arm comfortably?" Flowey asked her. She tried doing so a couple of times and the flower adjusted his position so that they were both comfortable.

"Where are we supposed to be going?" Sans asked the flower.

"To the Ruins," he replied.

"Sans, come here," Care said. When Sans did so, she wrapped her right arm around his shoulders and teleported all three of them to the giant door.

"Can we go a little further in? You know... so we don't have to deal with the caretaker," Flowey asked.

"What's wrong with the caretaker of the Ruins?" Sans asked.

"Nothing. Flowey's just scared of her," Care explained.

"Y-yeah, but it's with good reasoning!" Carol rolled her eye lights (I don't know if that's an actual term, but it is now.) at him and teleported again.

"So what was it that you wanted to show us?" Care hissed.

"Uh... you need to go to that flower garden near that hole where the humans keep falling through... You'd think that after so long they'd know better than to come here," Flowey added.

"Are we taking one of those shortcuts again?" Sans asked as he noticed Care began leaning slightly more weight onto him.

"No, I can only do so many of those in succession. Especially now," she said. "We're gonna have to walk there."

And so, they began walking through the Ruins. Care made sure to warn Sans about the puzzles and would tell him to wait while she and Flowey completed them. Eventually, they reached a room with a bridge over water covered in spikes.

"How are we gonna get across?" Sans asked.

"Teleportation?" Flowey suggested.

"No..." she mumbled.

"Haven't you done this before?" Sans asked.

"No, Az- I mean, Flowey has never asked me to come here," Care said.

"What do you- Oh! You're aware of resets too!" Sans exclaimed, his eye lights lighting up with realization.

"Not just that, bro. He is the reason the resets happen," Care explained. The flower immediately hits himself in the face with one of his leaves as though facepalming.

"WHY would you tell HIM that?" he shrieked.

"**He's my ****brother****. I can tell him what I want,**" Caroline said in a demonic voice. Flowey looked terrified. Sans couldn't blame him, he was scared too. He had not expected that from his sister. The scary part wasn't her expression or the sudden bright glow in her eye sockets. It was how she said it in almost a whisper, yet it still echoed.

_At least I know she's going to protect me and Papyrus no matter what, but, man, that is scary. _

"Uh... so... how are we going to get past this trap?" Sans asked, trying to change the subject.

"That is a good question," Care said, becoming the friendly person Sans knew once again.

"Teleportation?"

"Dude, you asked that like 5 seconds ago," Care said. "The answer's not gonna be any different."

"Actually, I could do it," Sans offered.

"Do what?"

"I could teleport us across," he explained. "I've been practicing since you first showed me in my first reset."

"Teleporting yourself is one thing," Care said. "Teleporting yourself and other people is another. It takes more Soul Energy the more people you're trying to bring with you. Even I have never teleported more than three people at a time."

"I know you're worried, but I can do it!"

"Sans, I don't want you to get hurt." The two argued back and forth for a while before Flowey got fed up and decided that they could just walk through the puzzle.

"If we walk along the correct path, the spikes will go down," he explained.

"Yeah, but how do we figure out the correct path?" Care snapped.

"Easy," Flowey said. He reached down with one of his vines and lifted up a rock. "Throw this forward so that it lands on a spot in front of us on the bridge. It's big enough to trigger the spikes to get them to shift down but small enough that it won't get stuck in between the spikes if the direction we're going in is wrong, so we'll be able to lift it back out."

"But throwing stuff takes energy," Sans said, playfully.

"I am not letting you teleport all three of us. You could hurt your soul. You gotta work your way up first," Caroline said, taking the rock from the flower. "Throwing a rock, however, has no effects on the soul."

It was a slow process. Flowey kept a vine around Sans's arm, as was requested by Carol, while she used her free arm to throw. When they finally got to the other side of the bridge, the three of them decided to take a break for a short while.

"Alright, I'd say we're close enough to that garden," Care said, suddenly. "Mind telling us what we're about to see?"

"Uh... Well... I..."

"Did you bring us here because you were bored?"

"No! I just-"

"Care... what is that?" Sans asked, nervously. The two of them stopped fighting to see a human girl. Well... they looked human, but they were slightly transparent and glowed a faint green. Although most of her features were hard to see, it was clear that she was just as surprised to see them.

"Oh... well, that's interesting," Care said to Flowey. "It's not every day you see a ghost."

"Ghost?" Sans asked.

"Uh... hi..." the ghost said. "It's nice to meet you... I'm Tara." She held out a hand to Carol, who just looked at it.

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Caroline," she said, with a hint of distrust. The ghost seemed to realize that they couldn't touch and pulled her hand back, awkwardly. After introductions, Tara said that she wanted to stay here for a while, and the other three decided to leave. Care, seemingly feeling recharged, teleported the three of them out of the ruins. Sans and Care left Flowey behind and went home.

"Well... that was interesting," the eldest skeleton said to Sans.

"Yeah... I'm gonna go to bed now."

"Okay. Good night!"

"Night."

Sorry this chapter is shorter than the others. Writer's block is really a pain, but I hope that it's still good anyway.


	7. A History Lesson

"Alright, class," Mrs. Cottonball said. "Settle down." One by one, the children began taking seats at their desks as she waited patiently.

"What are we doing today?" Phil asked. He was always punctual, arriving on time, although it seemed that he looked down on his fellow students.

"Today, we are having a history lesson," the teacher replied. Several students groaned audibly.

"How dare you disrespect Mrs. Cottonball-"

"It's alright, Phil. Calm down, and I shall begin the lesson." She reached for a book off the shelf and waited some more. When they were all silent, she opened to the first page and began reading.

_"Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: Humans and Monsters._

_Every 1000 years, one human would be born with an unusually strong soul._

_They were meant to keep the balance between the two races._

_They were known as the 'Guardian.'"_

Several students 'ooohed' loudly.

_"For many years, the two races lived in peace, advancing quickly with new technology and magic._

_The Guardian kept watching over them._

_However, one day, war broke out between the two races."_

"What did the Guardian do?" a small monster asked.

_"The Guardian of that time couldn't stop it, no matter how hard she tried._

_She knew she'd be forced to pick a side._

_The human king was ruthless._

_He tried to use the Guardian's powers against the monsters."_

Little gasps were heard.

_"But she refused._

_Instead, she chose to aid the monsters._

_She would heal their wounds when needed, or she would watch over children, sheltering them from harm._

_But she would never fight."_

"Why not?"

_"She refused to fight her friends and family._

_But she did manage to convince a few humans to join with them._

_The human king was furious, calling them traitors."_

"W-what did they do?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" Mrs. Cottonball asked. "It... it gets a little upsetting."

"Yes! Tell us, please!" all the students shouted.

_"They attacked the Guardian in the middle of the night._

_She tried to fight back, but she was outnumbered."_

More gasps.

"Oh no! What did she do?"

_"In desperation, she passed her Soul Energy on to the nearest monster._

_A child._

_The sudden surge of magical energy that filled the child wasn't very stable._

_She released in a burst of energy before reabsorbing it._

_This was a special attack."_

Some more 'oohs.'

"What happened next?"

_"It took out the many humans that were attacking them but didn't harm those who sided with them._

_This attack also destroyed most of the human's technology."_

"Take that, meanies!"

_"It seemed that the monsters would finally be able to overthrow the humans._

_Even if the monster king refused to let the child use the attack again, in fear that she would fracture her soul."_

"Yay!"

_"But they were wrong._

_After a long battle, the humans were victorious._

_They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell and killed those who had betrayed them."_

The room was silent for a few minutes.

"What happened to the monster child that the Guardian gave her Soul Energy to?" They were interrupted by the bell.

"That's all for today! See you tomorrow!"

"Aw..."

On her way home, Mrs. Cottonball couldn't help but think about the rest of the story. She had reread this part so many times, she knew it by heart.

_The magic from the Guardian merged with the child's soul._

_A human sharing magic with a monster had never happened before._

_Human magic and monster souls don't work well together._

_This was discovered a few days after the monsters had all settled down._

_There were times when the child's soul began rejecting its own energy signature._

_Her body was stable._

_But her soul..._

_Eventually, they discovered that the effects were less aggressive if the child used more magic that day._

_Something the king had told the child not to do after the war._

_It didn't stop the effects completely._

_But it __did__ slow them down _drastically_._


End file.
